| The Latest: Kurdish fighters pull out of Syrian border town Posted: 20 Oct 2019 08:12 AM PDT  A spokesman for the main Kurdish-led group in Syria says their fighters have evacuated the northern town of Ras al-Ayn, saying they have no armed presence there anymore. Kino Gabriel of the Syrian Democratic Forces said Sunday's evacuation was part of the agreement to pause military operations with Turkey with American mediation. The withdrawal of Kurdish fighters from Ras al-Ayn would open the way for them to leave a broader swath of territory along the Syria-Turkey border, as part of an agreement reached between the U.S. and Turkey.
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| Tropical Storm Priscilla to unleash flooding rainfall across southwest Mexico early this week Posted: 20 Oct 2019 03:18 AM PDT  A newly strengthened tropical storm will bring a heightened risk of flash flooding and mudslides to southwestern Mexico through Monday.The new tropical threat formed about 105 miles (169 km) south of Manzanillo, Mexico, early Sunday morning, and was upgraded to a tropical storm just a few hours later.As of 8 a.m. EDT Sunday, the storm was moving north at 7 mph (11 km/h) with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (64 km/h). This satellite image shows newly formed Tropical Depression 19 off the southwestern coast of Mexico early Sunday morning. (NOAA/GOES-EAST) The storm is expected to hold its intensity as it moves inland over southwestern Mexico.Wind gusts of 40-60 mph (64-97 km/h) can occur where the system makes landfall."Once inland, the system will quickly weaken and dissipate Sunday night," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Rob Miller said.No matter the status of Priscilla, heavy rainfall is expected to be the main impact from the system. AccuWeather meteorologists expect widespread rainfall totals of 3-6 inches (76-152 mm), with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 10 inches (254 mm).Portions of Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima and Michoacan are expected to bear the brunt of this rainfall."This rain will lead to the risk for dangerous flooding and mudslides across the region," Miller said.The area's steep terrain will heighten the risk of fast-moving, potentially life-threatening debris flows.This system is designated a less than 1 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes. The AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes ranges from values of less than 1 to 5.Elsewhere in the East Pacific basin, there are no other immediate tropical threats this week. Download the free AccuWeather app to see the latest forecast and advisories for your region. Keep checking back for updates on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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| 'She stole their lives': Woman convicted of passing school bus, killing 3 kids in crash Posted: 19 Oct 2019 11:08 AM PDT  Alyssa Shepherd was found guilty of three felony counts of reckless homicide for the Oct. 2018 crash that killed three siblings.
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| Trump misspells his defence secretary’s name in rambling rant about securing oil in Syria Posted: 20 Oct 2019 06:22 AM PDT  Donald Trump has misspelled his defence secretary's name while discussing his controversial decision to withdraw US troops from northern Syria.The US president tried to quote Mark Esper in a tweet, but instead he referred to him as "Mark Esperanto".
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| Andrew Yang’s ‘Freedom Dividend’ Echoes a 1930s Basic Income Proposal that Reshaped Social Security Posted: 19 Oct 2019 02:00 PM PDT  Andrew Yang wants to give Americans $1,000 a month.
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| Let jihadists return home, French anti-terror magistrate urges Posted: 20 Oct 2019 04:39 AM PDT  The refusal of the French government to take back Islamic State fighters from Syria could fuel a new jihadist recruitment drive in France, threatening public safety, a leading anti-terrorism investigator has told AFP. David De Pas, coordinator of France's 12 anti-terrorism examining magistrates, said that it would be "better to know that these people are in the care of the judiciary" in France "than let them roam free". Turkey's offensive against Kurdish militia in northeast Syria has sparked fears that some of the 12,000 jihadists, including thousands of foreigners, being held in Syrian Kurdish prisons could escape.
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| How Buttigieg's 'beta city' approach as mayor highlights his differences with Biden, Warren and Sanders Posted: 20 Oct 2019 05:54 AM PDT  Pete Buttigieg says the "beta city" approach he took in South Bend shows why he'd take a different approach to the White House compared with the top contenders.
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| Erdogan says Turkey to resume Syria offensive if truce deal falters Posted: 19 Oct 2019 03:29 AM PDT  President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Turkey would press on with its offensive into northeastern Syria and "crush the heads of terrorists" if a deal with Washington on the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters from the area was not fully implemented. Erdogan agreed on Thursday in talks with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence a five-day pause in the offensive to allow time for the Kurdish fighters to withdraw from a "safe zone" Turkey aims to establish in northeast Syria near the Turkish border. In the last 36 hours, there have been 14 "provocative attacks" from Syria, Turkey's defense ministry said, adding it was continuing to coordinate closely with Washington on implementation of the accord.
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| Trump calls Mexico's president to express 'solidarity' Posted: 19 Oct 2019 01:42 PM PDT  Mexico's president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said on Saturday that President Trump called him to express his "solidarity" following an attempt to arrest a drug kingpin's son that prompted a wave of violence in the city of Culiacan.
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| Four killed as police fire on Bangladesh protesters Posted: 20 Oct 2019 08:55 AM PDT  Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday called for calm after at least four people were killed when police fired on thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims protesting Facebook messages that allegedly defamed the Prophet Mohammed. Mob attacks over online posts perceived to be blasphemous have emerged as a major headache for security forces in Bangladesh, where Muslims make up some 90 percent of the country's 168 million people. Some 20,000 Muslims demonstrated at a prayer ground in Borhanuddin town on the country's largest island of Bhola to call for the execution of a young Hindu man charged with inciting religious tension through online messages.
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| Deep-sea explorers find Japanese ship that sank during WWII Posted: 18 Oct 2019 03:13 PM PDT  Deep-sea explorers scouring the world's oceans for sunken World War II ships are focusing in on debris fields deep in the Pacific, in an area where one of the most decisive battles of the time took place. Hundreds of miles off Midway Atoll, nearly halfway between the United States and Japan, a research vessel is launching underwater robots miles into the abyss to look for warships from the famed Battle of Midway. Weeks of grid searches around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands already have led the Petrel to one sunken warship, the Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga.
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| China Calls for Tech Collaboration While Criticizing U.S. Action Posted: 19 Oct 2019 10:17 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Terms of Trade is a daily newsletter that untangles a world embroiled in trade wars. Sign up here. A senior Chinese official called for governments around the world to work more closely together to regulate emerging technologies, while taking a veiled swipe at the U.S. for undermining collaboration."The foundation for an open and shared-by-all internet is unstable," Huang Kunming, a member of the Politburo, which is comprised of China's 25 most-senior officials, said at a technology forum on Sunday. "Some countries restrain and suppress companies from other countries using cyber security as an excuse. Such moves cast uncertainty and even antagonism over cyberspace," he said, without naming the U.S.Technology has come increasingly to the fore of a confrontation between the U.S. and China that began with trade and has since spread to 5G mobile networks and artificial intelligence. Washington has lobbied countries to not use gear from Huawei Technologies Co. in their 5G plans, arguing it could facilitate spying by Beijing, and the U.S. blacklisted some of China's leading AI companies, citing their links to the detention of ethnic minorities."We need to respect each country's approach to Internet development, governance, policy making and their rights to participate in international governance based on mutual trust," said Huang, who's also head of the Communist Party's publicity department. "We need to pay attention to each others' interests and concerns, effectively deal with disagreements and avoid strategic misjudgment. "Huang spoke at the World Internet Conference held in the small town of Wuzhen in eastern China's Zhejiang province. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Chief Executive Daniel Zhang, Baidu Inc. Chief Executive Robin Li and Western Digital Corp. Chief Executive Steve Milligan were among executives in attendance.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: John Liu in Beijing at jliu42@bloomberg.net;Gao Yuan in Beijing at ygao199@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, John LiuFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar continue criticizing Warren over Medicare-for-All Posted: 20 Oct 2019 11:00 AM PDT ![Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar continue criticizing Warren over Medicare-for-All]( "Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar continue criticizing Warren over Medicare-for-All") South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) are still going after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in a continuation of the most recent Democratic presidential debate.Both candidates appeared on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, where they maintained their support for a public option in their health care plans. Neither were satisfied with the Warren campaign's response efforts to clarify how the senator plans to pay for Medicare-for-All, either. Both Buttigieg and Klobuchar reiterated they are wary of any plan that would kick people off their private insurance.> 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on his vision for Medicare for All: "The issue here really isn't terminology, the issue is what is it that we're going to deliver and does it give everybody access to Medicare and choice. My plan does both of those things." CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/Binacfgw3h> > -- State of the Union (@CNNSotu) October 20, 2019Klobuchar, for her part, also said her plan, which also includes a non-profit public option, would "build" rather than "trash" ObamaCare. > 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar says "it is not" good enough that Elizabeth Warren is reviewing revenue options following criticism of her plan to pay Medicare for All CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/fL0br5KcQK> > -- CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 20, 2019
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| UPDATE 1-All U.S. troops withdrawing from Syria expected to go to western Iraq- Pentagon chief Posted: 19 Oct 2019 07:53 PM PDT ![UPDATE 1-All U.S. troops withdrawing from Syria expected to go to western Iraq- Pentagon chief]( "UPDATE 1-All U.S. troops withdrawing from Syria expected to go to western Iraq- Pentagon chief") On Thursday, Turkey agreed in talks with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence to a five-day pause in an offensive into northeastern Syria to allow time for the Kurdish fighters to withdraw from a "safe zone" Ankara aims to establish near the Turkish border with Syria. The truce also aimed to ease a crisis triggered by President Donald Trump's abrupt decision earlier this month to withdraw all 1,000 U.S. troops from northern Syria, a move criticized in Washington and elsewhere as a betrayal of loyal Kurdish allies who had fought for years alongside U.S. troops against Islamic State.
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| 'Totally gross': Susan Rice hits back at Trump after he criticizes her Syria policy Posted: 19 Oct 2019 06:47 AM PDT  Former Obama administration official Susan Rice hit back at Trump after he criticized her on Twitter.
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| Black security guard fired after asking student not to use racial slur Posted: 19 Oct 2019 06:25 AM PDT  A black school security guard has been fired after asking a pupil not to call him the N-word.Marlon Anderson said the teenager, who is also African American, used the racial slur repeatedly to refer to him.
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| 70,000 California wildfire victims may miss out on payments Posted: 19 Oct 2019 10:09 AM PDT  As many as 100,000 Californians are eligible to receive payments for the damages they suffered from a series of devastating wildfires over the last several years. Concerned that as many as 70,000 victims may miss out on payments, attorneys filed court papers Friday to alert the bankruptcy judge that wildfire survivors — many still traumatized and struggling to get back on their feet — aren't aware of their rights to file a claim. "People really are overwhelmed and don't understand what they need to do," said Cecily Dumas, an attorney for the Official Committee of Tort Claimants, a group appointed by the court to represent all wildfire victims in the bankruptcy.
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| School apologizes after photo showing students with cardboard boxes over their heads during exam goes viral Posted: 20 Oct 2019 09:41 AM PDT  An school in India has issued an apology after a bizarre image of students wearing cardboard boxes on their heads went viral. The images were taken during a chemistry exam at Bhagat Pre-University College in the town of Haveri.
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| U.S. Proposed to Help North Korea Build Tourist Area: Report Posted: 19 Oct 2019 02:17 AM PDT ![U.S. Proposed to Help North Korea Build Tourist Area: Report]( "U.S. Proposed to Help North Korea Build Tourist Area: Report") (Bloomberg) -- U.S. officials proposed a long-term plan to help North Korea construct a tourist area in return for denuclearization during recent working-level talks in Stockholm, Hankook Ilbo newspaper reported.U.S. negotiators prepared plans on the development of the Kalma tourist area, the paper said, citing an unidentified senior South Korean diplomat familiar with the talks in Stockholm. The paper didn't say how North Korea reacted to the proposal.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been pushing to complete a resort construction in the Wonsan-Kalma coastal area. In August, Pak Pong Ju, a key member of the ruling party's politburo, visited the region to encourage workers to make the area "a scenic spot" on the east coast.The talks in Stockholm earlier in October were the first in about eight months between the U.S. and North Korea, but ended with little agreement about what was even on the table. North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Myong Gil said the U.S. arrived "empty-handed" to the meeting, a point disputed by State Department officials.To contact the reporter on this story: Kanga Kong in Seoul at kkong50@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Jasmine NgFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Conquer The Terrain With A 1963 Volvo L3314 Laplander Camper Posted: 18 Oct 2019 03:16 PM PDT  Let nothing stand in your way. Old military trucks are a lot of fun, especially something like this 1963 Volvo L3314 Laplander Camper. It's been converted into a camper which can get to places you might not even reach using some trucks. That means not having to sleep in some rooftop tent and use a tiny camp stove while enjoying the beauty of a super remote wilderness area.These trucks were commonly used by different Scandinavian and Saudi Arabian armed forces, so the claim that this particular one spent its time as part of the Norwegian Armed Forces doesn't sound too far-fetched, although there apparently is zero documentation to backup that claim. It is painted Olive Drab, so it likely has some military experience. That paint does cover all the factory badging and wood trim pieces, preventing those from giving away your position when in cover.You'll note there's a recovery shovel mounted to the nose of this Volvo, just below the pop-out windshield. Other exterior details include a skylight, roof access hatch, locking spare tire cover, LED front fog lights, LED side area lights, front-mounted 8,000-lb. electric winch, rear mud flaps, and a ladder. Also included is a 10-foot boat painted to match the truck, and it mounts to the roof nicely.This vehicle looks tough and has the chops to back that up. A short wheelbase, high ground clearance, and excellent approach/departure angles make it quite capable on trails, which is what you'd expect from a good off-roader. While the Volvo Penta AQ130 engine isn't a beast, with 130-horsepower on tap it definitely gets the job done without guzzling fuel.As for the interior, some nice upgrades were installed by the previous owner. While the cab is stock and not plush at all, it's quite functional. In the rear is a nice leather sleeper sofa which looks brand new. You can cook up all kinds of gourmet meals using the wood stove with chimney, oven, and sink. The Coca Cola cooler and cabinets help with storage. Blinds keep things private. Just in case you have a larger party with you, a two-person tent is being thrown in with the purchase.You're a far cry from a Winnebago with this Volvo L3314 Laplander Camper. There's really no telling if or when you'll see another like this, because they pop up occasionally but often go fairly quickly. If you want to see about purchasing this vehicle for your outdoor excursions, contact Chicago Car Club for details. Read More * Place A Bid On This 1968 Volkswagen Beetle Herbie Tribute * Driver Recklessness Cited In Kevin Hart Car Crash
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| Bob Menendez says Pompeo ‘in a parallel alternate universe’ Posted: 20 Oct 2019 08:28 AM PDT ![Bob Menendez says Pompeo 'in a parallel alternate universe']( "Bob Menendez says Pompeo 'in a parallel alternate universe'") Sen. Bob Menendez said Sunday there are "no guarantees" that U.S. interests in the Middle East are still being served following the White House decision to pull troops out of northern Syria. The New Jersey Democrat also scoffed at Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's assertions that the region has become more stable since the U.S. announced its withdrawal and that the Islamic State is being effectively countered. President Donald Trump's abruptly announced pullout allowed Turkey to invade the region and attack Kurdish forces that were allied with the U.S. in the fight against ISIS.
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| Trump accidentally refers to Defense Secretary Esper as 'Mark Esperanto' in tweet defending Syria withdrawal Posted: 20 Oct 2019 12:07 PM PDT  President Trump quoted "Mark Esperanto, Secretary of Defense" on Sunday. But the man in charge of the Pentagon is named Mark Esper, not Esperanto.
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| UPDATE 1-Bangladesh to move Rohingya to flood-prone island next month Posted: 20 Oct 2019 06:08 AM PDT ![UPDATE 1-Bangladesh to move Rohingya to flood-prone island next month]( "UPDATE 1-Bangladesh to move Rohingya to flood-prone island next month") Bangladesh will start relocating Rohingya Muslims to a flood-prone island off its coast next month as several thousand refugees have agreed to move, a government official said on Sunday. Dhaka wants to move 100,000 refugees to Bhasan Char – a Bay of Bengal island hours by boat from the mainland – to ease overcrowding in its camps at Cox's Bazar, home to more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims who have fled neighbouring Myanmar. "We want to start relocation by early next month," Mahbub Alam Talukder, the Relief and Repatriation Commission chief based in Cox's Bazar, told Reuters, adding that "the refugees will be shifted in phases".
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| Do Germans Know a Hate Crime When They See It? Posted: 19 Oct 2019 11:24 AM PDT  Jens Schlueter/GettyFRANKFURT—Slowly, many would say too slowly, Germany is waking up to the threat of far right terrorism. How could it not after a gunman attacked a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar? Unable to enter, he killed a woman on the street and a man in a kebab shop. The shooter's "manifesto" was a typical anti-Semitic screed, but his mother's words, in their way, were more chilling. She told the German magazine Der Spiegel that her son "didn't have anything against Jews in that sense. He had something against the people who stand behind financial power."Unfortunately, such parsing of definitions is not unique to the moms of murderers. Violent hate crimes that stop short of fatalities occur on an almost daily basis in this country, but are rarely reported or prosecuted.Livestreamed Anti-Semitic Attack in Halle Germany Kills Two on Yom KippurIn the past week alone, three right-wing extremists walked through the streets of Doebeln wearing orange jackets that said "Safe Zone," chanting far right slogans and claiming to hunt "foreigners." Right-wing extremist strategy is to make out that a "foreign threat," that is, immigrants, has made streets unsafe, and that the German state has lost control of order, so it's up to quasi-nazis to defend the streets and their country. Thus the "safe zone" reference.In Mannheim, a 62-year-old man was arrested after shouting racist abuse at people on the train. (He was first told to leave because he didn't have a ticket.) In Halle, someone uploaded a video of a man on the bus slurring abuse and talking about "gassing" people.A few hours after the terror attack in Halle, police in the western city of Bonn reported that shots were fired through the window of an immigrant asylum home. The suspects drove off. For the far right, such attacks small and large serve to instill fear in the targeted group, to drive a wedge between that group and the rest of society and thus fuel the extremists' prophesied "war of cultures," as Matthias Quent writes in his book Deutschland Rechts Aussen, or "The German Far Right." And by failing to provide victims of hate crimes with justice, or declining to acknowledge that they are what they are, Germany's democratic institutions perpetuate these aims.In the aftermath of Halle, some measures have been announced. At a press conference, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said security measures at synagogues across the country would be improved.But the government's anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, thinks that's not enough. Speaking on ZDF television the day after the attack, he demanded that judges be allowed to recognize and give tougher sentences to anti-Semitic hate crimes. Right now the relevant law speaks of "contemptuous" motives."I have not had one case where anti-Semitism was clearly named as the motive for a crime," says Christina Büttner from "ezra," an organization in Thuringia, where victims of violent hate crimes can get counselling and legal advice. Thuringia is an eastern German state and home to the far-right AfD, Alternative für Deutschland, hardliner Bjoern Hoecke, who has called the Holocaust memorial in Berlin a "monument of shame" and said that schools should highlight German suffering in World War TwoIn 2014, a group of right-wing extremists beat up six people at an art exhibition in Erfurt, a city in Thuringia. The attack began with a man wearing a shirt emblazoned with the image of Horst Wessel, a Nazi shot in 1930 and portrayed as a martyr by Josef Goebbels. That man started making anti-Semitic slurs to visitors before he was joined by seven other men who shouted "Sieg Heil." At their court hearing, the consensus appeared to be that the offenders were "drunk and looking for a fight," says Büttner. The anti-Semitic slurs were "brushed aside." The fact that one of them had the face of an SS officer tattooed on his calf was only added to the case file after he appeared at proceedings in short pants. "There are education gaps about anti-Semitism among officials, state prosecutors and judges," says Büttner. "One cannot assume that highly educated people in Germany know what anti-Semitism is." According to official figures, such as they are, anti-Semitic and racist hate crimes—including online hate speech and the use of Nazi symbols—increased almost 20 percent in Germany last year. In most cases, the offender was judged to have a far right background. Büttner says her organization has dealt with one case where the offender had a Muslim background, but when it comes to violent anti-Semitic attacks, right-wing extremists "are in the majority." When confronted with the case of a person who may have been a victim of a violent hate crime, the police in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, where Halle is located, have been told to refer victims to independent advisory services like ezra. The legal advice of these NGOs can be useful, for example, if police refuse to provide a translator to a victim who doesn't speak German. "In Halle, this works very well," says a counselor for the organization Mobile Operberatung. "But in other parts of the state, it may be that the police don't recognize the cases or that they don't know what they are supposed to do."Independent advisory services for hate crimes—mostly present in eastern Germany—record a much higher number of violent attacks than the authorities. Last year, they estimated that an average number of five people a day were attacked. Even more hate crimes go completely unrecorded. "Our statistics are the tip of the iceberg," Büttner says.In Germany, the individual police officer asked to register an assault decides whether it is a hate crime or not. Judith Porath, who counsels victims of violent hate crimes in the eastern state of Brandenburg, says that the people who come to her center often decide not to go to the police. Some worry about revenge. Others distrust the authorities. "People feel that they are not being believed, that they are being treated as the offenders," she says. Sometimes, a person who is targeted repeatedly by hate crimes will think there is no point in going to the police if they are still waiting for the legal proceedings against a different assailant from three years ago. One reason that proceedings are so slow is that there is a significant shortage of judges and state prosecutors in Germany. In cases of far right violence, according to Porath, a common strategy that her organization has encountered is for gangs to first ambush a person who is alone, then accuse that person of assault. The culprits can back each other up in court. If the victim has no witnesses, the case either is dropped or the victim ends up being charged. How Deeply Has Germany's Murderous Far Right Penetrated the Security Forces?The fact that there are more hate crimes could be interpreted by the organized extremist movement as a sign the population is "leaning toward their ideology" and shares their definition of "enemies," Daniel Koehler, director of the Institute on Radicalization and De-Radicalization Studies, tells The Daily Beast. There are some signs that the German law enforcement's sensitivity may be improving. In the ZDF interview, Felix Klein said that one reason the number of officially recorded anti-Semitic hate crimes last year increased was because more people are now going to the police. In Halle, the number of violent attacks recorded by the Mobile Operberatung actually decreased in the past year. But in the neighboring state of Saxony, NGOs recorded a 38 percent increase in violent attacks—not least because of a series of assaults fuelled by the racist riots in Chemnitz last August. In the wake of those riots, four restaurants were attacked, including the Jewish restaurant Shalom and the Persian restaurant Safran. These properties were destroyed, swastikas were painted on the glass and one owner was in the hospital for eight days. The state police took over the cases, citing the likelihood of a xenophobic motive. No suspects were found. "To some extent, the affected did not feel like they were being taken seriously," says Anna Pöhl, a counselor for victims of hate crimes in Chemnitz. This was in part because of the manner in which police investigated the attacks, for example by checking for ties to organized crime or asking whether the offenders had perhaps been shouting something in Arabic or Russian–this after being told that they'd given a Hitler salute and shouted "Sieg Heil." This September, the far right Alternative für Deutschland party became the second strongest party in Saxony and Brandenburg. Now, Judith Porath says "The AfD tries to discredit us, they are constantly making inquiries about us." Other political parties have defended the NGO, she said, so far. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Deadly protests in Guinea as Russia calls for change of rules to keep despot in power Posted: 19 Oct 2019 07:54 AM PDT  When police shot dead nine pro-democracy protesters in Guinea this week, Western embassies quietly shared their misgivings with the country's president, Alpha Conde. International human rights groups were more unequivocal. François Patuel of Amnesty International denounced "a shameful attempt by Guinean authorities to stifle dissent by any means necessary". But one major power seemed unperturbed. Mr Conde's ruthless response to protests against his apparent efforts to cling to power not only suited Russia, it seems probable that they were tacitly endorsed by the Kremlin. On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, will host leaders from 35 African states at a summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi as he seeks to consolidate Moscow's growing influence in the world's poorest continent. Russia may lack the heft of its rivals, able neither to match the West in aid nor China in terms of infrastructure financing, but it does have other resources with which to woo African leaders, particularly those of a more authoritarian bent. Vladimir Putin is looking to expand Russian influence Not only has Russia sold arms to 18 African states over the past decade, its mercenaries have fanned out across the continent to offer protection and other services to receptive governments. "Political technologists" have also allegedly mounted disinformation campaigns in several recent African elections. In return, Russia has won concessions to mine minerals and secured backing from African delegates at the United Nations. Russia's blossoming relationship with Mr Conde is an example of just how successful its muscular Africa policy can be. Guineans are meant to elect a new president next year. Having served two five-year terms, Mr Conde is constitutionally barred from standing again, but has made it increasingly clear that he is not yet ready to surrender the presidency. At least four people have been killed in Guinea's capital after police fired tear gas and bullets Monday to disperse thousands of opposition supporters Credit: AP To do so, Guinea will need an entirely new constitution, plans for which have already been advanced by Mr Conde's ruling party. The opposition has accused the president of seeking to ease its path by stacking the constitutional court, taming the electoral commission and delaying parliamentary elections by more than a year to protect his narrow legislative majority. Russia has openly given its cover to Mr Conde's efforts. In an extraordinary intervention, brazen even by the Kremlin's standards, Russia's ambassador, made a televised address on New Year's Eve backing a constitutional change. Alexander Bregadze told Guineans they would be mad to allow the "legendary" Mr Conde to step down, saying: "Do you know many countries in Africa that do better? Do you know many presidents in Africa who do better?" "It's constitutions that adapt to reality, not reality that adapts to constitutions." Such naked campaigning from a diplomat is unusual. But Russia has a vital relationship to nurture. Guinea holds the world's largest reserves of bauxite, the ore that is refined and smelted to produce aluminium. The Russian firm Rusal, the world's largest aluminium producer outside Russia, sources more than a quarter of its bauxite from Guinea. Guinea's importance to Russia grew immeasurably last year after the United States imposed sanctions on Rusal and its co-owner, the oligarch and close Putin ally Oleg Deripaska. Sanctions have since been lifted on Rusal but not on Mr Deripaska. Young people block the road as they protest against a possible third term of President Alpha Conde on October 16, 2019, in Conakry Credit: AFP The significance of the relationship was underscored when Mr Bregadze stepped down as ambassador in May to head Rusal's operations in Guinea. Other Russian firms also have mineral interests in Guinea. Tellingly, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a shadowy Kremlin associate linked to mercenary and mining outfits in Africa, is understood to have set up operations in Guinea. Mr Putin has wooed President Conde, too, twice inviting him to Moscow for talks. Guinea's opposition has denounced what it says is Russian interference. Protesters last week made their feelings clear by blockading a Rusal-owned railway line used to transport bauxite. Their anger is likely to achieve little. Emboldened by Russian backing, Mr Conde has only cracked down harder. Last week, nine senior opposition figures were charged with insurrection. They face five years in prison. Given everything it has invested in Mr Conde, Russia cannot risk the opposition coming to power. When Mr Putin meets his guest in Sochi, he is likely to encourage him to persist with repression.
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| Egypt reveals details of 30 ancient coffins found in Luxor Posted: 19 Oct 2019 12:28 PM PDT  Egypt's antiquities authorities on Saturday revealed the details of 30 ancient wooden coffins that were recently discovered in the southern city of Luxor. Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters the coffins, with inscriptions and paintings, were found in the Asasif Necropolis on the Nile River's west bank near Luxor. The coffins were for men, women and children from the 22nd dynasty (945-715 B.C.) and had been collected and hidden by a priest for fear of being looted, Waziri said.
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| China Urged to Curb Risky Lending to Vulnerable Pacific Nations Posted: 20 Oct 2019 06:01 AM PDT ![China Urged to Curb Risky Lending to Vulnerable Pacific Nations]( "China Urged to Curb Risky Lending to Vulnerable Pacific Nations") (Bloomberg) -- China should put the brakes on its lending in the South Pacific to avoid lumping economically vulnerable nations with unsustainable debt, according to a report released by an Australian think tank."The sheer scale of China's lending and its lack of strong institutional mechanisms to protect the debt sustainability of borrowing countries poses clear risks," the Lowy Institute said in a report released Monday. "China cannot remain a major lender in the Pacific at the same scale as in the past without fueling significant" dangers, it said.According to Lowy, six South Pacific governments are debtors to China: Cook Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu. Between 2011 and 2018, China made official loan commitments to the region totaling about $6 billion, or about 21% of regional GDP.As China spreads its influence beyond the South China Sea to the South Pacific -- a region comprised of island nations traditionally under U.S. hegemony and on Australia's doorstep -- officials in Washington and Canberra are increasingly concerned Beijing may use debt through infrastructure loans as leverage to establish military bases in the region.Opaque LendingLast November, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence criticized President Xi Jinping's Belt-and-Road Initiative, which Morgan Stanley has said may total $1.3 trillion by 2027 -- dwarfing the funds the U.S. and allies have mobilized. Pence said the U.S. doesn't "drown our partners in a sea of debt" or "offer a constricting belt or a one-way road."While the Lowy report said there was no evidence to suggest China was engaging in deliberate "debt-trap diplomacy" in the South Pacific, it urged Beijing to adjust "the scale, nature, and opacity of China's lending activities" in the region."If China wants to remain a major development financier in the Pacific without fulfilling the debt-trap accusations of its critics, it will need to substantially restructure its approach, including adopting formal lending rules similar to those of the multilateral development banks," it said.China has increased its economic and diplomatic footprint in the region by funding and building much-desired transport and utility infrastructure, compared with the traditional focus by U.S. and Australia on bolstering governance, health and education services.Increasing AidAccording to Lowy, between 2011–2017 China was responsible for 37% of all official sector loans to the region, with traditional creditors including Asian Development Bank and World Bank responsible for the bulk of the balance. China is the single largest creditor in Samoa and Vanuatu, and accounts for more than half of Tonga's total outstanding debt, it said.In response to China's rising power in the region, the U.S. recently established a Directorate of Pacific Affairs within the White House National Security Council, which provides a hub for coordinating U.S. policy in the region with other like-minded countries, including Australia.Australia unveiled a A$2 billion ($1.4 billion) infrastructure fund for the region last last year, while the U.S. joined a group that includes Japan, the European Union and the ADB to fund projects."There is scope for Australia's more modest infrastructure lending plans to be sustainable," the Lowy report said. "If Australia wants to do more in the Pacific though, it should reverse the current stagnation in its overall aid budget."To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Scott in Canberra at jscott14@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Muneeza NaqviFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| The Navy Wants to Push Out Problem SEALs. But Trump May Get in the Way. Posted: 18 Oct 2019 12:33 PM PDT  Spiking drinks with cocaine, shooting Iraqi civilians, strangling a Green Beret: The Navy SEAL teams have been rocked by one high-profile scandal after another in recent months, and the leader of the elite commando force, Rear Adm. Collin P. Green, has vowed to clean house.Green has come down hard on misconduct, fired two key leaders and made an unusually public admission that the Navy's secretive warrior caste has an "ethics problem." At the same time, though, he has steered wide of the SEAL at the center of one of the grimmest episodes, Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, who was charged with shooting civilians, murdering a captive Islamic State fighter with a knife, and threatening to kill witnesses.Gallagher was acquitted of murder charges this summer, but evidence that he had engaged in a range of other misconduct, including theft and drug use, had come to light during the investigation. Green and other Navy leaders were planning to demote him and force him out of the SEALs -- sending a message that such conduct had no place in one of the country's premier fighting forces.None of that has happened, though, because one of Gallagher's most vocal supporters happens to be the commander in chief. President Donald Trump has repeatedly intervened, and has posted so many expressions of support for the SEAL on Twitter that the Navy now sees Gallagher as untouchable, according to three Navy officials familiar with the case. Any talk of punishment has been shelved, not only for the chief, but for two other SEALs who had been facing possible discipline in the case, these officials said.Trump helped Gallagher get released from confinement before his trial, and personally congratulated him on Twitter when he was acquitted."People want to hold these guys accountable," said one Navy officer who was involved in the punishment deliberations. "But they are afraid that if you do anything, minutes later there will be a tweet from the White House, and the officer in charge will get axed."The officer, like others interviewed for this article, asked that his name not be used because he feared retaliation.The president has previously made it clear that he believes the country should tread carefully when calling American troops to account for acts of war. Only last week, he announced on Twitter that the White House was reviewing the case of Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, a former Army Special Forces soldier charged with murder in the death of a Taliban bomb maker in Afghanistan. "We train our boys to be killing machines, then prosecute them when they kill!" Trump wrote.The issue in Gallagher's case became apparent to Green's team in August, when the chief's lawyers -- including one of Trump's personal lawyers, Marc Mukasey, who joined the defense team two months before the June court-martial -- had tried and failed to persuade Navy commanders to suspend any punishment. Soon after that, the president brought up the Gallagher case at a meeting with the Secretary of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Operations, according to a senior Navy official.White House officials strongly denied that the Gallagher case was discussed. But hours after the meeting, the Chief of Naval Operations announced that he would personally take over the Gallagher case from another admiral, who had indicated that she planned to punish the chief.The Navy had also planned to discipline two other SEALs who had come under investigation in the Gallagher case: Lt. Jacob Portier, who was charged with not reporting Gallagher's actions in Iraq; and Special Operator 1st Class Corey Scott, a platoon medic whose testimony at the chief's trial prompted the Navy to open a perjury investigation. But the day after the White House meeting, the charges against Portier were dropped and the investigation of Scott was ended.The intervention from Washington left Navy leaders with a dilemma: Not punishing Gallagher and the others would undermine efforts to restore discipline in the ranks, but punishing them only to be publicly reversed might make things even worse."All that's off the table now," said a Navy Special Warfare officer who was briefed on the most recent deliberations of Green's team about the matter. Navy commanders grew concerned that if they took away from Gallagher the Trident pin that signifies membership in the SEALs, only to see the president give it back again, the officer said, "it sends a message that the commanders aren't in control."While taking no action against Gallagher, the Navy recently fired two senior leaders of the team on which Gallagher serves, SEAL Team 7, which has had other recent incidents of misconduct. The command cited a "loss of confidence that resulted from leadership failures."The two leaders, Cmdr. Edward Mason and Master Chief Hugh Spangler -- both decorated career SEALs with unblemished records who took command of the team after Gallagher had been arrested -- filed a complaint with the Navy's inspector general over their firing. They said that they had become "expendable scapegoats" in the admiral's fight against an anti-authoritarian "Gallagher effect" that was threatening to spread through the force.With his new, protected status, Gallagher appears to be trolling Navy leadership.A few days after the demoted leaders filed their complaint, an Instagram account belonging to Gallagher and his wife started selling T-shirts emblazoned with the phrase "The Gallagher Effect."Another recent Instagram post from the account referred to Green and another top Navy leader as "a bunch of morons."And in a photo posted on social media by a former member of his platoon, Gallagher is seen gripping a hunting knife similar to the one Navy prosecutors said he used to kill a captive fighter from ISIS, which is also known by its Arabic name, Daesh. The post, which was "liked" by Gallagher's account, included the hashtags WeDon'tHaveAnEthicsProblem and NoOneCriesOverSpilledDaesh.Timothy Parlatore, a lawyer for Gallagher, said the Instagram account is administered by the chief's wife and does not reflect the chief's views.The original criminal charges against Gallagher, 40, stemmed from his fifth combat deployment with the SEALs, when he led a platoon fighting ISIS in Iraq in 2017. In a text message sent to his supervisor before deploying, he said he did not care where the Navy sent him, as long as there was "sure action," adding, "We just want to kill as many people as possible."He ended up in an advisory role largely behind front lines. But several men under his command told Navy authorities that he remained fixated on killing, and said they saw him shoot civilians with a sniper rifle and stab a captive teenage ISIS fighter in the neck. Their reports eventually led to the war crimes charges filed against the chief.After Gallagher was arrested in 2018, his family appeared repeatedly on Fox News, insisting that he had been wrongly accused. Soon Trump became a supporter, praising Gallagher's "past service to our country" on Twitter. Trump directed the Navy to release the chief from pretrial confinement in the spring of 2019 and ordered paperwork to pardon him before his trial in June.During the trial, the Navy's case against Gallagher fell into disarray as a key witness, Scott, changed his story on the stand and prosecutors canceled the testimony of other witnesses, fearing they would do the same. A jury made up largely of seasoned combat veterans found Gallagher not guilty of nearly all counts.After the acquittal, the president congratulated him on Twitter saying, "Glad I could help!"But Green was worried about the message that the Gallagher case was sending to the rest of force. In July, he sent a letter to the SEAL teams warning that the spate of incidents of drug use and violence in the SEAL teams showed "we have a problem," and that leaders "must now take a proactive approach to prevent the next breach of ethical and professional behavior."In Gallagher's case, though he had been acquitted on the murder charge, Navy officials were considering administrative punishment for other possible misconduct uncovered during the investigation.The Navy had found unauthorized grenades, stolen equipment and illicit drugs in his house and in his work locker, according to the Navy's criminal investigation report. When investigators seized the chief's phone, they found text exchanges suggesting he was illegally using the narcotic painkiller Tramadol, as well as marijuana and ecstasy.Gallagher has denied that he did anything unlawful in Iraq, and his lawyer, Parlatore, said the purported drug and equipment offenses had already been investigated and had been deemed insignificant.The part of the case taken over by the chief Navy officer in Washington concerns the minor charge on which Gallagher was convicted in the trial -- posing for a photo with a corpse. The officer hearing the case had recommended that the chief be demoted by one rank, with the possibility that he could be further reduced to the lowest rank in the military, E-1. The regional commander overseeing the court-martial, Rear Adm. Bette Bolivar, had the authority to adjust or overturn the conviction and sentence.Gallagher's legal team pressed Bolivar to suspend his punishment so the chief could retire from the Navy with full rank and a clean record. Bolivar replied in a letter Aug. 1 that she found the chief's conduct reprehensible and had no intention of suspending his sentence.That was when the chief's legal team informed the Navy that they would "take their case to Washington," according to a Navy official with knowledge of the exchange. On the same day that Bolivar's letter was sent, the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. John M. Richardson, along with the Secretary of the Navy, Richard V. Spencer, went to the White House for a meeting with Trump.A senior Navy official said the two men had not expected to discuss the Gallagher case, and were surprised when the president brought it up, expressing his displeasure that prosecutors had received commendations for what he regarded as a botched handling of the case.Though White House officials insist the case was not discussed, within hours of the meeting, Richardson took the Gallagher, Portier and Scott cases from Bolivar.Charges against Portier were then dismissed, and the investigation of Scott was halted. Neither man responded to requests for comment.Parlatore said he had not contacted the White House and had no knowledge of any intervention by the president. He said he welcomed the president's involvement if it happened because his client was threatened with punishment for minor misconduct that is often overlooked in the SEAL teams. "If the president has a deterrent effect and can prevent retaliation, we're thankful for that," he said.A new Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Michael M. Gilday, took command in August, but has not changed course. His final decision in the Gallagher case is expected by the end of October.Green was not available to discuss the case, according to Cmdr. Tamara Lawrence, a Navy spokeswoman, who added that "it would be inappropriate to speculate on any administrative actions, as no decisions have been made."On the night of the leadership demotions in Team 7, Gallagher made an unauthorized appearance at a "Patriot Awards" gala in Nashville, Tennessee, alongside Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Both men accepted awards from country music star Charlie Daniels."What an honor," a post on Gallagher's Instagram account said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| FACT: Cuba Hosted Russian Spy Planes to Use Against America Posted: 19 Oct 2019 12:00 PM PDT  A forgotten tale of the cold war.
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| Turkey urges US to use 'leverage' to get Kurdish force pullout: AFP interview Posted: 19 Oct 2019 01:56 PM PDT  Turkey on Saturday urged the United States to use its "leverage" over Syrian Kurdish forces to ensure an orderly pullout under an agreement reached with Washington, a presidential spokesman told AFP. Ankara had no intention of "occupying" any part of the neighbouring country, he insisted. Turkey and the United States reached an agreement that gives Kurdish forces five days for a complete withdrawal from a safe zone along the border -- a deadline which expires Tuesday night.
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| Her son shot his way into an Indiana high school. Now she's facing six felony charges Posted: 20 Oct 2019 11:27 AM PDT  Mary York faces felony charges because of her son's actions at Dennis Intermediate School. Parents of school shooters are rarely charged.
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| Boeing board to meet in Texas as scrutiny intensifies: sources Posted: 19 Oct 2019 04:38 PM PDT  Several industry sources said there was speculation inside the company of significant job cuts as Boeing, unable to deliver 737 MAX planes to customers, continues to drain cash. The schedule for the board's face-to-face meetings was set for Sunday and Monday in San Antonio, one of the people said, two days before Boeing reports earnings on Oct. 23. The week after, Boeing Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg - who was stripped of his job as board chairman eight days ago - is due to testify before U.S. Congress about the plane's development.
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| Tulsi Gabbard elevated in Iowa by Clinton spat Posted: 19 Oct 2019 06:05 PM PDT  Hillary Clinton's suggestion this past week that Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is being "groomed" by Russians to act as a spoiler in the 2020 race may have had the opposite effect of what the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee intended: It's elevated Gabbard's candidacy and may have inspired even more ardent interest in her campaign among Clinton critics. On Saturday, Gabbard found fans among the many Clinton skeptics across Iowa, where Clinton barely won the 2016 Democratic caucuses against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
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